Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Has It Really Come To This?

This past weekend the Yankees found out their 2012 luxury tax fate, and they were reportedly in for $18.9 million or as I like to call it, more money than I'll ever come close to seeing in my life. It was a bump up from their 2011 luxury tax and established a pretty good benchmark for how much work the Yankees still have to do to get under that luxury tax threshold in 2014 as well as how much they've already done over the last 10 years to rack up almost a quarter billion in luxury tax penalties.

Yesterday the AP released a story that damn near everybody in blogosphere hopped on immediately. Apparently somebody forgot to carry a 3 somewhere, because it turns out the Yankees actually owed $19.3 million in luxury tax, OOOOOOOOOOHHHHH!!!!! That's right, Yankee fans. The old Evil Empire got dinged for another $393,648 and everybody's talking about it like it's actual news. Ummm, what planet am I on??

I know it's the beginning of the slowest time of the offseason, and I'm as guilty as anybody of reaching for stuff to post every now and then, but is this really what it's come to for the Yankees and us as the Yankee writing/blogging community? Is this what this new waller-tightening policy means as far as "news" for the next few years?? We're talking about a multi-billion dollar international juggernaut who just made a big business move to add more to their ever-expanding billion dollar pot having to pay an extra 400 grand like that actually matters. $400,000!! That's nothing to the Yankees. The Yankees probably made that much money on hat sales yesterday! In just the tri-state area!!

Let me just state for the record again that I DO see the value in getting below the threshold in 2014, and if it buys the team some years of relief while they go out and try to restock with some prime free agents like they did in the 2008-2009 offseason, that'll be just grand. But that doesn't mean I want to have to read about every nickel and dime the team is paying out for whatever reason like it's a bank breaker for the next year plus. That shit's going to get real old real quick.

This isn't the goddamn Mets or some scrub team hosting ballpark bake sales to sign middle-of-the-road free agents. The is the Yankees, a team who's already spent over $50 million this offseason in a year where they're supposed to be "scaling back," including dropping 12 on an aging, declining third baseman to replace the even more aged and in decline third baseman with whom they're still in for over $100 mil. 400 grand in luxury tax, despite what Hank and Hal might tell you, doesn't mean squat to them, and it doesn't need to be talked about like it's part of a Suze Orman advice show. Let's shelve the dollars and cents talk for a time when it actually means something, alright?